Here is the synopsis of our sample research paper on Henry Wirz / Scapegoat For Civil War Crimes At Andersonville. Have the paper e-mailed to you 24/7/365.
Essay / Research Paper Abstract
Confederate Major Henry Wirz has had his name soiled throughout history as the man responsible for some horrendous war crimes (mostly at Andersonville) during the conflict between North and South. In fact, he was the only Southern official to be executed for such crimes at the conclusion of the Civil War. In this 40 page thesis, the writer argues that Wirz was not as guilty as historians make him out to be;-- Through an in-depth analysis of Civil War history, the point is made that Wirz was actually only a scapegoat--and not genuinely responsible for the crimes that were committed. Bibliography lists approximately 30 sources.
Page Count:
40 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_Wirzthe.doc
Buy This Term Paper »
Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
held accountable. Be they of the South or of the North, they cannot escape history." --R. Randolph Stevenson, Formerly surgeon in the Army of the Confederate States of America
(Kantor, 1955; 1994) Overview The murky depths of history still confound the hypothesis that Confederate soldier, Major Henry Wirz,
commandant of the notorious Andersonville, Georgia prisoner of war camp, was responsible for the inhumane treatment and eventual death of 16,000 Northern Union soldiers. After the American Civil War ended
in 1865, Wirz was the only Confederate soldier to be hanged for war crimes. Portraits of Wirz show a thin, emaciated man, with deep sunk eyes and hollowed out cheek
bones, nearly looking like some of the Northern prison of war soldiers he was in charge of. His demeanor is defensive, a haunted look appears to lead to a premonition
that his life will end in tragedy and disrepute. In the Northerners view of history, Wirz was indeed responsible for personally seeing that 16,000 or more Union soldiers died
in murderous, untimely and unnecessary deaths. The Southern view is more kind and in the writers opinion, more close to the truth of history. Wirz was caught in a
crossfire fervor of post war vengeance. The tragedy at Andersonville was not of Wirz doing. He was in the wrong place, at the wrong time in the reckoning of history,
with the stage set for a scapegoat. The victors, suffering the loss of many dead, needed a scapegoat, a point of view,
a direction to move in, in order to allow the Northerners to act out and direct their anger at deaths of their loved ones. The Northern politicians needed a scapegoat,
...